Digimon Tamers (デジモンテイマーズ,Dejimon Teimāzu?) is the third animated series based on the Digimon franchise, first broadcast in 2001. The story takes place initially in the "real world", a world much like ours where Digimon is just a franchise, composed of video games, a collectible card game, and a Cartoon series. A group of 12-year-olds (10-year olds in the Japanese version), Takato, Henry and Rika (fans of the Digimon card game) meet their own Digimon friends and start to duel "bio-emerging" Digimon who cross the barrier between the information network and their world, synthesizing proteins and becoming real. Most of it set in the modern Tokyo ward of Shinjuku and only changes scenario to the Digital World for a short time.

The tone of this season has many elements from head writer Chiaki J. Konaka's other works, especially Serial Experiments Lain, including a few aspects from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Thus, the series had a very dark tone in nature, much more so than its predecessors. The show's English dub had little editing compared to previous seasons.

Contents

Plot summary

English dub logo

Japanese logo

Takato creates his Digimon partner Guilmon when he slips a mysterious blue card he found in his deck through his hand-held card reading device, changing it into a D-Arc, the Tamers version of a Digivice. The appearance and powers of this Digimon come from Takato's sketches that were scanned into the device. Guilmon bio-emerges from the Digital World and is found later by Takato. Henry met his Digimon Terriermon when he rose from the screen of a computer game, while Rika's Digimon Renamon approached her to ask to be made stronger, since Rika was famous for her skills on the Digimon card game. Other characters, Kazu, Kenta and Jeri (Takato's friends from school) and Suzie (Henry's little sister) become Tamers later on in the series, and Ryo (Rika's rival and fellow Digimon Tamer) is introduced later on. They also encounter two more Digimon that they frequently run into: Calumon, a mysterious Digimon that has the power to make other Digimon digivolve but dislikes fighting and only wants to play and eat junk food, and Impmon, a Digimon that left his Tamers because he was sick of their bickering and selfishness and thinks that all Digimon with Tamers are a disgrace.

Along the way, the kids learn to be responsible for those creatures as a mysterious man known as Yamaki tries to stop Digimon (who he calls "Wild Ones") from coming to the real world. From the secret government agency called Hypnos, Yamaki was in charge of monitoring all Digimon activity around the globe. Later, the new Tamers are forced to fight a group of evil Digimon calling themselves the Deva, who serve the Digimon Sovereigns and believe that Digimon shouldn't partner with humans. Their true purpose to come into the human world was to capture Calumon and take him back to the Digital World so they could use his power of Digivolution. The Tamers and friends then decide to leave for the Digital World to rescue Calumon. They destroy all but one of the Devas (Antylamon turned to the side of good and became Suzie's Digimon partner) and confront and defeat Impmon, who is now Beelzemon after making a deal with Zhuquiaomon for more power in exchange for eliminating the Tamers. After traveling to the Digital World to rescue Calumon the Tamers meet (and fight with) the digital god, but finally agree to work together in order to destroy the D-Reaper, a computer program initially designed to keep digital life in check, but it itself went out of control.

Several new elements are introduced in this season, including the use of game cards to Digi-Modify and give different powers to the Digimon, the presence of Calumon, a lone Digimon responsible for the Digimon evolutions, and the use of "biomerging" to bring the Digimon to their final Mega levels by merging their bodies with their human partners. The season also continued the progression from Digimon Adventure, which was set in the Digital World with only a temporary return to the real world, through Digimon Adventure 02, where the characters returned from the Digital World to rest after most episodes: in Digimon Tamers the action is entirely within the real world, with a journey to the Digital World in midseason.

Episodes

Digimon Tamers aired 51 episodes on Fuji TV in Japan from April 1, 2001 to March 31, 2002, and on Fox Kids in the United States from September 1, 2001 to June 8, 2002. It was aired in Fox Kids in the United Kingdom, as well as on CITV, but on CITV, they only aired the first four episodes in slots which should have been filled by the last four episodes of Digimon Adventure 02. Vol 1 of a VHS copy was sold there with those four episodes. A Vol 2 was also made, but they missed nine episodes off and went straight to episodes fourteen, fifteen and sixteen.

Two young children whom Impmon first met during his first time in the human world; his experiences with their sibling rivalry gave him a strong dislike for humans. They reconciled with Impmon near the end of the season.

Digital World

The Digital World (or DigiWorld for short) is a parallel, shadow world that coexists with Earth, created as it was by it. This is where all Digimon live.

The Digital World that runs parallel to the Earth inhabited by Takato and the other Tamers originally started out as a barren desert, which became home to the digital life forms created by the Monster Makers in the 1980s – the Digimon. Some organisms even evolved on their own in the Digital World, the DigiGnomes. But in the early days of life in the Digital World, it was attacked by the deadly D-Reaper deletion program, which had been created to destroy all artificial intelligence that moved beyond its limits. However, as it deleted many Digimon, it absorbed their data, and was mutated by it, gaining sentience and more power. It entered a period of inactivity, and buried itself away, deep beneath the Digital World.

Time passed, and four Digimon evolved into their highest stages, becoming the "gods" of the Digital World – the four Digimon Sovereigns, Azulongmon, Baihumon, Ebonwumon and Zhuqiaomon. The Digital World eventually grew to be composed of six planes – the earliest was the desert, while the sixth is the highest plane where the Sovereigns dwelled, along with the Shining Digivolution—the power source that provided the energy to allow Digimon to Digivolve. On the four planes in between are "miniverses"—specialized environments created by the Digimon that inhabit them. There are a great many of them, but ones seen included: an area of clouds and clockwork where Clockmon and Hagurumon lived, a warped, black-and-white town where the Nohemon dwell and a Knightmon patrolled its castle at night, an area of forests, lakes and rivers where Orochimon is a dictator over the Gekomon's village, a 'world' entirely composed of water and underground caverns within them where a Divermon lived and protected the Otamamon there, and a region of ice. Huge Data Streams connect the regions of the Digital World to Earth, as digital matter from the Digital World is manipulated and utilized by computers on Earth. In the void between the Digital World and the real world, there is a warped area where reality is in flux, and is defined only by the perceptions of those within it.